UCLA medical students give freshmen insight on college experiences

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Sergio Payeras First-year UCLA medical students Monica Justo and Jay Gill have a Q&A session with the 6th period Journalism 1 class on Feb. 12.

Whether it’s a childhood passion or a love you develop in the middle of your education, a career in medicine is a lifelong love for Jay Gill and Monica Justo.

“Nothing is ever easy but taking in all of the information makes it hard, but the fact that we love going to class always helps,” said Gill, who is getting a PhD in addition to studying neurosurgery.

On Feb. 12, Gill and Monica Justo visited the period 6 Journalism 1 class to talk about their experiences throughout life that have lead them to become University of California Los Angeles medical students and how their life is now.

Both Gill and Justo visited to shadow this school’s psychiatric social worker Joanne Tuell to see what the everyday job of a social worker is. The journalism students got a chance to interview them about all sorts of topics relating to them now being at UCLA and the challenges they face.

“The hardest part for me is just time management and knowing where I have to be at all times but it has helped me stay organized,” said Justo, who is planning to become a surgeon.

Both of the medical students have had very different paths to reaching UCLA. Gill knew that he wanted to go into the medical field since he was an 8-year-old and worked throughout his entire time in school to get to where he is today. Justo had a bumpier road to UCLA because until her sophomore year of undergrad, she was studying to become an engineer but then went on a school trip and discovered she wanted to help people as a doctor.

“Showing that you actually care about the topic you are interested in will go a much longer way than just caring about your grades during high school,” Gill said.